In this lesson we will make the custom field and the action visible for the end user on the thing inspector standard screen of the sales quote.
This video shows how the Sales Quote Thing Inspector standard screen receives the additional controls from our business object extension. We make the Review Needed flag (the indicator, that is shown as a check box control), and the Check Review Needed action available on the screen. So that the user can trigger the check manually and can see the result besides the messages that are shown during the check. The indicator will be saved with the BO data.
The process of screen enhancement starts in the Developer Desktop with a right click on the XBO and choosing "Enhance Screens". We can enhance all screens that are associated with the respective business object. After selecting which screens we want to extend, the process continues in the UI Designer where the actual adaptation takes place. During screen generation, they will be opened in the UI Designer automatically after the selection dialog has been confirmed. Additionally, the selected screens will show up as items in the Solution Explorer. A double click on a screen will open it in the UI Designer.
The new fields and actions, introduces in the XBO defition, won’t be populated on the screens automatically. Instead, we have to add them to the screen in the desired place.
Editing standard screens works quite differently compared to custom BOs. While on custom screens we can do nearly whatever we want, on standard screens we can only place our enhancements, where the screen is prepared for this. These places are called "extensibility anchors" and can be accessed from the Extensibility Explorer. The Extensibility Explorer is an additional tool window that can usually be found as a tab in the lower-right corner of the UI Designer. If it doesn’t show up there, you can open it from Menu View → Extensibility Exploreras shown in the screenshot below.
The Toolbox and Property Editor, as well as the Data Model and Controller tabs are read only to us when working on standard screens.
The list of extensibility anchors can be confusing at the beginning. Selecting an entry will mark the respective area in the main window and vice versa. Finding the screen's header area is usually easy. When it comes to section groups or other areas you may have to click through the list to find the right one.
Once you find the right place, double-check which operations are available for enhancements. For the header area, it is very likely that actions and new fields can be added. Besides that, Mashups can be added in many places. Some anchors even allow you to change the properties of existing controls. It always depends on the respective anchor.
After you have applied the desired enhancements to the screen, click the "Save and Activate" button.
If you need to remove an enhancement, you can click the little arrow next to the enhancement operation and all enhancements are displayed. Sometimes they are referred to as change transactions. Click the "Remove" icon to delete the respective enhancement. Another "Save and Active" is necessary after that.